Dec 24 (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by rapper Saman Seydi Yasin against his death sentence even because it confirmed the identical sentence against one other protester, the judiciary mentioned on Saturday.

Yasin, a Kurd who raps about inequality, oppression and unemployment, had been accused of making an attempt to kill safety forces, setting a garbage bin on fireplace and capturing 3 times into the air throughout anti-government protests, prices which he denied.

Yasin’s mom final week pleaded in a video for assist to save lots of her son. “Where in the world have you seen a loved one’s life is taken for a trash bin?” she mentioned within the video posted on social media.

The court had initially mentioned it had accepted the appeals of Yasin and one other protester, however in a subsequent assertion the judiciary’s Mizan information company mentioned solely Yasin’s appeal had been accepted.

“The public relations of the Supreme Court of Iran has corrected its news: ‘The appeal of Mohammad Qobadloo has not been accepted … Saman Seydi’s appeal has been accepted by the Supreme Court,” the company mentioned.

Explaining the choice in its unique assertion, it cited flaws in investigating the case and mentioned it had been referred again to the court for re-examination.

Qobadloo had been charged with killing a police agent and injuring 5 others along with his automotive throughout the protests.

Unrest erupted throughout Iran in mid-September after the death in custody of Kurdish Iranian girl Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police implementing the Islamic Republic’s strict gown code for ladies.

Late on Saturday, the one hundredth day of the protests, movies posted on social media confirmed night time demonstrations mentioned to be in areas together with the capital Tehran, the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad, Karaj west of Tehran, and Sanandaj, the centre of Kurdistan province within the northwest.

Dozens of protesters have been seen braving rain and snow to chant slogans together with “Death to the dictator” and “Death to (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei!” Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the movies.

DEATH PENALTY

Saturday’s announcement follows the Supreme Court’s suspension of protester Mahan Sadrat’s death sentence 10 days in the past. He had been charged with varied alleged offences resembling stabbing a safety officer and setting fireplace to a motorbike.

Iran hanged two protesters earlier this month: Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was accused of blocking a important street in September and wounding a member of the paramilitary Basij power with a knife, and Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, who was accused of stabbing to death two Basij members, and publicly hanged from a development crane.

Amnesty International referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood to stress Iran to halt Qobadloo’s execution and “not allow Iran’s machinery of death to claim another victim while (the) world’s attention is on celebrating the festive season”.

Amnesty has mentioned Iranian authorities are looking for the death penalty for not less than 26 folks in what it referred to as “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.

It mentioned all of these going through death sentences had been denied the proper to satisfactory defence and entry to attorneys of their selecting. Rights teams say defendants have as a substitute to depend on state-appointed attorneys who do little to defend them.

Rights group HRANA mentioned that, as of Friday, 506 protesters had been killed, together with 69 minors. It mentioned 66 members of the safety forces had additionally been killed. As many as 18,516 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it mentioned.

Officials have mentioned that as much as 300 folks, together with members of the safety forces, had misplaced their lives within the unrest.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, David Holmes and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BRASILIA, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Supporters of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday tried to invade the federal police headquarters within the capital Brasilia, in a flash of post-election violence on the day the president’s electoral defeat was licensed.

Reuters witnesses noticed Bolsonaro supporters, many of their trademark yellow nationwide soccer jerseys or draped in Brazilian flags, confronting safety forces at police headquarters. Police fired stun grenades and tear gasoline to disperse the group. Nearby buses and automobiles have been set on hearth.

Federal police mentioned “disturbances” close to the headquarters have been being dealt with with help from capital safety forces.

The violence unfolded after a Bolsonaro supporter was detained for allegedly organizing violent “anti-democratic acts,” in response to the choose who ordered his arrest.

Earlier on Monday, the federal electoral courtroom (TSE) licensed the Oct. 30 election victory of Bolsonaro’s leftist rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as president. After months of baseless recommendations that Brazil’s voting system is susceptible to fraud, Bolsonaro has neither conceded defeat to Lula nor has he formally blocked the handover of energy.

But some of the president’s most diehard supporters have blocked highways in protest and camped out in entrance of military barracks, calling for a army coup to bar Lula from workplace.

Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters gathered exterior the presidential residence on Monday afternoon with banners calling for “military intervention.” The president joined them for a public prayer however didn’t tackle the group.

“There’s not going to be an inauguration,” mentioned Jose Trindade, 58, one of the Bolsonaro supporters within the crowd. “Bolsonaro was re-elected, but they stole it. So only the army can put things in order.”

The conspiracy theories and subsequent violence have rekindled reminiscences of the January 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump. It additionally raises safety considerations about Jan. 1, when Lula takes workplace in a public ceremony in Brasilia.

Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, a key Lula aide, mentioned there have been considerations in regards to the bodily security of Lula and Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, as protesters had surrounded the lodge the place he’s staying in Brasilia. Lula’s crew denied studies that Lula can be faraway from the lodge by helicopter.

Brasilia’s public safety officers mentioned that they had secured the realm round Lula’s lodge, and urged motorists to keep away from the middle of the town the place many roads had been closed.

SPARKED BY ARREST

The violence in Brasilia got here after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has led probes into Bolsonaro and his allies, on Monday ordered the momentary arrest of José Acácio Serere Xavante for allegedly finishing up anti-democratic acts.

Xavante, an indigenous chief, is among the many Bolsonaro supporters who’ve protested in defiance of the Oct. 30 election end result.

“I cannot accept criminals reigning in Brasil,” Xavante tweeted final month. “Lula cannot be certified.”

Last week, Bolsonaro broke weeks of post-election silence to say that his state of affairs “hurts my soul.”

“Who decides where I go are you. Who decides which way the armed forces go are you,” Bolsonaro instructed his supporters on the gates of the presidential residence on Friday.

In an announcement, the Supreme Court mentioned Moraes “decreed the temporary arrest, for 10 days, of the indigenous José Acácio Serere Xavante, due to evidence of the commission of crimes of threat, persecution and violent abolition of the Democratic State of Law.”

It mentioned Xavante had led protests throughout Brasilia and had used “his position as chief of the Xavante people to enlist indigenous and non-indigenous people to commit crimes,” threatening Lula and Supreme Court justices.

Xavante had “expressly summoned armed people to prevent the certification of elected” politicians, the assertion added.

Reporting by Ueslei Marcelino and Victor Borges; Additional reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello and Carolina Pulice; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BANDUNG, Indonesia, Dec 7 (Reuters) – A suspected Islamist militant, angered by Indonesia’s new criminal code, killed one different individual and wounded at the least 10 in a suicide bomb assault at a police station within the metropolis of Bandung on Wednesday, authorities stated.

The suicide bomber was believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State-inspired group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) and had beforehand been jailed on terrorism costs, Indonesian police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo instructed a information convention.

The police chief stated the attacker, recognized as Agus Sujatno, was launched in late 2021 and investigators had discovered dozens of paperwork protesting the nation’s controversial new criminal code on the crime scene.

“We found dozens of papers protesting the newly ratified criminal code,” he stated.

Though there are sharia-based provisions within the new criminal code ratified by parliament on Tuesday, Islamist hardliners might have been angered by different articles that might be used to crackdown on the propagation of extremist ideologies, analysts say.

West Java police chief Suntana earlier instructed Metro TV that authorities had discovered a blue bike on the scene, which they believed was utilized by the attacker.

Attached to the bike was a note carrying a message decrying the new criminal code as “an infidel product,” Suntana stated.

Todd Elliott, a senior safety analyst at Concord Consulting in Jakarta, stated it was doubtless the assault had been deliberate for a while and was an ideological rejection of the nation’s new legal guidelines.

“While all the attention is on some of these sharia-based provisions in the criminal code and how that is an indication of the spread of conservative Islam in Indonesia, there are also changes in the criminal code that hardliners would not support,” he stated.

“Including outlawing any ideology that goes against the state ideology, Pancasila, and that would also include extremist ideology.”

Video footage from the scene of Wednesday’s assault confirmed smoke rising from the broken police station, with particles n the bottom.

“Suddenly I heard the sound of an explosion… I saw a few police officers come out from the station and they couldn’t walk properly,” Hanes, a 21-year-old avenue vendor who witnessed the explosion instructed Reuters.

Islamist militants have lately carried out assaults on the planet’s largest Muslim-majority nation, together with at church buildings, police stations and venues frequented by foreigners.

Members of JAD have been liable for a collection of suicide church bombings within the metropolis of Surabaya in 2018. Those assaults have been perpetrated by three households, who additionally hooked up suicide vests to their younger kids, and killed at the least 30 individuals.

In 2021, a pair of JAD newlyweds carried out a suicide bomb assault at a cathedral in Makassar, killing solely themselves.

In an effort to crack down on militants, Indonesia created a tricky new anti-terrorism legislation after suicide bombings linked to JAD.

The group, which is now largely splintered, has been considerably weakened by a wave of arrests by the counterterrorism company lately, analysts say.

Reporting by Ananda Teresia, Fransiska Nangoy, Stefanno Sulaiman, Yuddy Cahya Budiman and Kate Lamb; Writing by Kate Lamb; Editing by Ed Davies, Gerry Doyle & Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Protesters in Iran known as on Sunday for a three-day strike this week, stepping up strain on authorities after the general public prosecutor mentioned the morality police whose detention of a younger girl triggered months of protests had been shut down.

There was no affirmation of the closure from the Interior Ministry which is in control of the morality police, and Iranian state media mentioned Public Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was not accountable for overseeing the power.

Top Iranian officers have repeatedly mentioned Tehran wouldn’t change the Islamic Republic’s necessary hijab coverage, which requires girls to decorate modestly and put on headscarves, regardless of 11 weeks of protests towards strict Islamic laws.

Hundreds of individuals have been killed within the unrest which erupted in September after the loss of life in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian girl who was detained by the morality police for flouting the hijab guidelines.

Protesters in search of to take care of their problem to Iran’s clerical rulers have known as for a three-day financial strike and a rally to Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square on Wednesday, in response to particular person posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters.

President Ebrahim Raisi is because of deal with college students in Tehran on the identical day to mark Student Day in Iran.

Similar calls for strike motion and mass mobilisation have in previous weeks resulted in an escalation within the unrest which has swept the nation – a few of the largest anti-government protests since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The activist HRANA information company mentioned 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, together with 64 minors. It mentioned 18,210 demonstrators had been arrested and 61 members of the safety forces had been killed.

Iran’s Interior Ministry state safety council mentioned on Saturday the loss of life toll was 200, in response to the judiciary’s information company Mizan.

Residents posting on social media and newspapers similar to Shargh each day say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in current weeks as authorities apparently attempt to keep away from scary extra protests.

On Saturday, Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded.

“The same authority which has established this police has shut it down,” he was quoted as saying. He mentioned the morality police was not below the judiciary’s authority, which “continues to monitor behavioural actions at the community level.”

Al Alam state tv mentioned overseas media had been depicting his feedback as “a retreat on the part of the Islamic Republic from its stance on hijab and religious morality as a result of the protests”, however that each one that may very well be understood from his feedback was that the morality police weren’t instantly associated to the judiciary.

EXECUTIONS

State media mentioned 4 males convicted of cooperating with Israel’s spy company Mossad had been executed on Sunday.

They had been arrested in June – earlier than the present unrest sweeping the nation – following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim information company reported.

The prime minister’s workplace in Israel, which oversees Mossad, declined to remark.

The Islamic Republic has lengthy accused arch-enemy Israel of finishing up covert operations on its soil. Tehran has just lately accused Israeli of plotting a civil warfare in Iran, a cost it has additionally made towards the United States and different Western nations.

“Western countries are using the protests to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian instructed a information convention on Sunday.

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the nation’s Supreme Court had upheld the loss of life sentence handed out to the 4 males “for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”.

Three different folks had been handed jail sentences of between 5 and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included appearing towards nationwide safety, aiding in kidnapping and possessing unlawful weapons, the Mehr information company mentioned.

Reporting by Dubai Newsroom
Editing by Dominic Evans, Raissa Kasolowsky, William Maclean and Susan Fenton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

AMSTERDAM, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Dutch judges convicted two Russian males and a Ukrainian man in absentia of homicide for their function in the capturing down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, and handed them life sentences.

Ukraine welcomed the ruling, which could have implications for different court instances Kyiv has filed in opposition to Russia, whereas Moscow known as the ruling “scandalous” and stated it could not extradite its residents.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam and was sure for Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over jap Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as preventing raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of this yr’s battle.

The ruling got here as a reduction to victims’ members of the family, greater than 200 of whom attended the court in particular person, wiping away tears because the judgement was learn.

“Only the most severe punishment is fitting to retaliate for what the suspects have done, which has caused so much suffering to so many victims and so many surviving relatives,” Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis stated.

The three males convicted have been former Russian intelligence brokers Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist chief.

The three have been all discovered to have helped to prepare the transport into Ukraine of the Russian army BUK missile system that was used to shoot down the aircraft, although they weren’t those that bodily pulled the set off.

They are fugitives and believed to be in Russia. A fourth former suspect, Russian Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted on all costs.

The incident in 2014 left the aircraft’s wreckage and victims’ stays scattered throughout fields of corn and sunflowers.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February and claims to have annexed the Donetsk province the place the aircraft was shot down.

“The families of victims wanted the truth and they wanted justice to be done and those responsible to be punished and that is what happened. I am pretty satisfied,” Piet Ploeg, who heads a basis representing victims, advised Reuters. Ploeg’s brother, his brother’s spouse and his nephew died on MH17.

Meryn O’Brien of Australia, who misplaced her 25-year outdated son Jack, stated she felt relieved. “Everyone was relieved the process has come to an end, and it is very fair, and it has been meticulous.”

“There’s no celebration,” stated Jordan Withers of Britain, whose uncle Glenn Thomas died. “Nothing is going to bring any of the victims back.” They got here from 10 totally different international locations.

The judgment included a 16 million euro damages award.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the primary sentences handed down over MH17 as an “important decision” by the court in The Hague.

“But it is necessary that those who ordered it also end up in the dock because the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes,” he wrote on Twitter. “We have to dispel this illusion. Punishment for all Russian atrocities – both then and now – will be inevitable.”

The ruling discovered that Russia had “overall control” over the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine from mid May 2014.

“This is groundbreaking,” stated Marieke de Hoon, assistant professor of worldwide legislation at Amsterdam University. The ruling was “authoritative” and would doubtless increase Ukraine’s different worldwide instances in opposition to Russia relating to the 2014 battle.

‘NO REASONABLE DOUBT’

Judge Steenhuis stated there was ample proof from eyewitness testimony and images which tracked the missile system’s actions into and again out of Ukraine to Russia.

“There is no reasonable doubt” that MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile system, Steenhuis stated.

Moscow denies any involvement or accountability for MH17’s downing and in 2014 it additionally denied any presence in Ukraine.

In a press release, the Russian overseas ministry stated “throughout the trial the court was under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the media to impose a politically motivated outcome”.

“We deeply regret that the District Court in The Hague disregarded the principles of impartial justice in favour of the current political situation, thus causing a serious reputational blow to the entire judicial system in the Netherlands,” it added.

Prosecutors had charged the 4 males with capturing down an airplane and with homicide in a trial held underneath Dutch legislation, as greater than half of the victims have been Dutch. Phone name intercepts that fashioned a key half of the proof urged the boys believed they have been concentrating on a Ukrainian fighter jet.

Steenhuis stated that, whereas that counted for one thing in phrases of lessening the severity of their prison accountability, they nonetheless had a murderous intent and the results of their actions have been large.

Of the suspects, solely Pulatov had pleaded not responsible through attorneys he employed to signify him. The others have been tried in absentia and none attended the trial.

The police investigation was led by the Netherlands, with participation from Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia and Belgium.

Thursday’s ruling will not be the ultimate phrase on holding folks accountable for MH17, Dutch and Australian authorities stated.

Andy Kraag, the top of the police investigation, stated analysis was persevering with into attainable suspects larger in the chain of command. Investigators are additionally trying on the crew of the missile system which launched the deadly rocket.

The Dutch and Australian governments, which maintain Russia accountable, have began a continuing in opposition to the Russian Federation on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Reporting by Toby Sterling, Stephanie van den Berg and Bart Meijer; Editing by Jon Boyle, Alex Richardson, Toby Chopra, Alexandra Hudson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday did not concede defeat in his first public remarks since shedding Sunday’s election, saying protests by his supporters have been the fruit of “indignation and a sense of injustice” over the vote.

However, he stopped wanting contesting the election end result and approved his chief of employees, Ciro Nogueira, to start the transition course of with representatives of leftist President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

It took Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist, greater than 44 hours to remark after the election was determined by electoral authorities, with the delay elevating fears he would search to solid doubt on the slender end result.

Amid his silence, supporters blocked highways to protest his defeat, with some calling for a navy coup to cease former president Lula from returning to energy.

The freeway blockades have disrupted gasoline distribution, grocery store provides, and the movement of grains exports to main ports, in accordance to trade teams. learn extra

In his temporary nationwide tackle, Bolsonaro joked that journalists would miss him, thanked those that voted for him and stated he would abide by the structure, which stipulates a transition of energy on Jan. 1.

“The current popular movements are the fruit of indignation and a sense of injustice about the way the electoral process took place,” he stated.

He stated protesters ought to keep away from destroying property or “impeding the right to come and go,” but did not inform them to go house.

“Bolsonaro has not put out this fire. He spoke to his hardcore supporters without criticizing the demonstrators on the highways,” stated political threat analyst Andre Cesar at Hold Legislative Advisors in Brasilia. “He is keeping his more extremist followers mobilized.”

Karina Laurinda, 34, who took half in freeway demonstrations outdoors of Sao Paulo, stated she would hold protesting.

“Even if he says to calm down, not to react, we’re still going to react because we won’t accept a Lula government,” she stated.

LULA CONTACTS

Bolsonaro’s chief of employees and Vice President Hamilton Mourao have begun to make contact with the Lula camp to talk about a transition. Other allies, together with the speaker of the decrease home of Congress, have referred to as since Sunday for the Bolsonaro authorities to respect the election end result.

In an announcement, the Supreme Court stated it thought-about that, by authorizing the federal government transition, Bolsonaro was recognizing the results of the election.

Before Sunday’s vote, Bolsonaro repeatedly made baseless claims that the electoral system was open to fraud and accused electoral authorities of favoring his leftist adversary.

Bolsonaro did not instantly repeat these claims on Tuesday. But his reference to “injustice” within the electoral course of confirmed he had discovered from the post-presidency of U.S. President Donald Trump, his ideological ally, in accordance to Leonardo Barreto, political analyst at Vector Consultancy in Brasilia.

Trump has continued to repeat false claims that the 2020 U.S. election was “stolen” by widespread fraud and retains a major core of supporters who imagine them.

“He is going to copy Trump for the next four years to keep his conservative movement alive,” stated Barreto, forecasting that the 2026 election can be a rematch between Bolsonaro and Lula’s Workers Party.

Lula’s victory represents a surprising comeback for the 77-year-old former metalworker, who spent 19 months in jail for corruption convictions earlier than they have been annulled final 12 months.

Lula has vowed to overturn a lot of Bolsonaro’s insurance policies, together with pro-gun measures and weak safety of the Amazon rainforest. His aides confirmed on Tuesday that he would attend this month’s COP27 United Nations local weather summit in Egypt.

Lula’s centrist operating mate, former Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin, will coordinate the transition, the Workers Party introduced on Tuesday, with the assistance of occasion chief Gleisi Hoffmann and former Education Minister Aloizio Mercadante.

Nogueira, Bolsonaro’s chief of employees, advised journalists that the president had approved him to start the transition course of with Alckmin as soon as his title is formally submitted on Thursday.

Reporting by Ricardo Brito, Marcela Ayres and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia, and Brian Ellsworth, Nayara Figuereido and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo; Editing by Brad Haynes, Alistair Bell, and Rosalba O’Brien

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Brazilian leftist chief Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election, but the far proper incumbent did not concede defeat on Sunday evening, elevating issues that he would possibly contest the end result.

The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) declared Lula the following president, with 50.9% of votes in opposition to 49.1% for Bolsonaro. The 77-year-old Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1.

It was a shocking comeback for the leftist former president and a punishing blow to Bolsonaro, the primary Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election.

“So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognize my victory, and I don’t know if he will call or if he will recognize my victory,” Lula advised tens of hundreds of jubilant supporters celebrating his win on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Ave.

In distinction to Bolsonaro’s silence, congratulations for Lula poured in from overseas leaders, together with U.S. President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.

A supply within the Bolsonaro marketing campaign advised Reuters the president would not make public remarks till Monday. The Bolsonaro marketing campaign did not reply to a request for remark.

Bolsonaro final 12 months brazenly mentioned refusing to simply accept the outcomes of the vote, making baseless claims that Brazil’s digital voting system was susceptible to fraud.

One shut Bolsonaro ally, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, in an obvious nod to the outcomes, wrote on Twitter, “I PROMISE you, I will be the greatest opposition that Lula has ever imagined.”

Financial markets is likely to be in for a risky week, with buyers gauging hypothesis about Lula’s cupboard and the chance of Bolsonaro questioning outcomes.

The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who emerged from the again benches of Congress to forge a novel conservative coalition but misplaced assist as Brazil ran up one of many worst loss of life tolls of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden congratulated Lula for successful “free, fair and credible elections,” becoming a member of the refrain of compliments from European and Latin American leaders.

International election observers stated Sunday’s election was performed effectively. One observer advised Reuters that navy auditors did not discover any flaws in integrity assessments they did of the voting system.

Truck drivers believed to be Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday blocked a freeway in 4 locations within the state of Mato Grosso, a serious grains producer, in line with the freeway operator.

In one video circulating on-line, a person stated truckers deliberate to dam predominant highways, calling for a navy coup to forestall Lula from taking workplace.

PINK TIDE RISING

Lula’s win consolidates a brand new “pink tide” in Latin America, after landmark leftist victories in Colombia and Chile’s elections, echoing a regional political shift twenty years in the past that launched Lula to the world stage.

He has vowed a return to state-driven financial progress and social insurance policies that helped elevate hundreds of thousands out of poverty throughout two phrases as president from 2003 to 2010. He additionally guarantees to fight destruction of the Amazon rainforest, now at a 15-year excessive, and make Brazil a frontrunner in international local weather talks.

“These were four years of hatred, of negation of science,” Ana Valeria Doria, 60, a physician in Rio de Janeiro who celebrated with a drink. “It won’t be easy for Lula to manage the division in this country. But for now it’s pure happiness.”
A former union chief born into poverty, Lula organized strikes in opposition to Brazil’s navy authorities within the Nineteen Seventies. His two-term presidency was marked by a commodity-driven financial increase and he left workplace with file recognition.

However, his Workers Party was later tarred by a deep recession and a record-breaking corruption scandal that jailed him for 19 months on bribery convictions, which had been overturned by the Supreme Court final 12 months.

Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia, Brian Ellsworth and Lisandra Paraguassu in Sao Paulo
Editing by Brad Haynes, Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DUBAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) – A hearth broke out on Saturday in Tehran’s Evin jail, the place lots of Iran’s political and dual-national detainees are held, and witnesses reported listening to gunfire.

State information company IRNA mentioned eight individuals had been injured within the unrest, which erupted after practically a month of protests throughout Iran over the dying in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian lady.

The protests have posed one of the severe challenges to the Islamic Republic because the 1979 revolution, with demonstrations spreading throughout the nation and a few individuals chanting for the dying of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

An Iranian judiciary assertion mentioned a jail workshop was set on fireplace “after a fight among a number of prisoners convicted of financial crimes and theft”. Tehran’s fireplace division instructed state media the reason for the incident was below investigation.

The jail, situated within the foothills at the northern fringe of the Iranian capital, holds legal convicts in addition to political detainees.

“Roads leading to Evin prison have been closed to traffic. There are lots of ambulances here,” mentioned a witness contacted by Reuters. “Still, we can hear gunshots.”

Another witness mentioned households of prisoners had gathered in entrance of the principle jail entrance. “I can see fire and smoke. Lots of special forces,” the witness mentioned.

A safety official mentioned calm had been restored at the jail, however the first witness mentioned ambulance sirens might be heard and smoke nonetheless rose over the jail.

“People from nearby buildings are chanting ‘Death to Khamenei’ from their windows,” the witness mentioned.

Early on Sunday, IRNA carried a video it mentioned confirmed jail areas broken by fireplace. Firemen had been seen dousing the particles with water, apparently to stop the blaze from re-igniting.

The jail largely holds detainees dealing with safety expenses, together with Iranians with dual nationality. It has lengthy been criticised by Western rights teams and was blacklisted by the U.S. authorities in 2018 for “serious human rights abuses”.

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American imprisoned for practically seven years on espionage-related expenses rejected by Washington as baseless, returned to Evin on Wednesday after being granted a quick furlough, his lawyer mentioned.

Other U.S. residents held in Evin embody environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who additionally has British nationality, and businessman Emad Shargi, in line with human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan.

He added that a number of different dual nationals are held at Evin, together with French-Iranian educational Fariba Adelkhah and Iranian-Swedish Ahmadreza Djalali, a catastrophe drugs physician.

Asked in regards to the jail fireplace, U.S. President Joe Biden instructed reporters throughout a marketing campaign journey to Portland, Oregon: “The Iranian government is so oppressive.”

He mentioned he was shocked by “the courage of people and women taking (to) the street” within the latest protests and had huge respect for them. “It’s been really amazing,” he added. “They’re not a good group, in the government.”

U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price tweeted, “we are following reports from Evin Prison with urgency. We are in contact with the Swiss as our protecting power. Iran is fully responsible for the safety of our wrongfully detained citizens, who should be released immediately.”

Human Rights Watch has accused authorities at the jail of utilizing threats of torture and of indefinite imprisonment, in addition to prolonged interrogations and denial of medical look after detainees.

“No security (political) prisoner was involved in today’s clash between prisoners, and basically the ward for security prisoners is separate and far from the wards for thieves and those convicted of financial crimes,” an unnamed official instructed the Tasnim information company.

‘CLERICS GET LOST’

The unrest at Evin jail occurred after practically a month of protests throughout Iran since Amini – a 22-year-old lady from the nation’s Kurdish area – died on Sept. 16 whereas being held for “inappropriate attire”.

Although the unrest doesn’t seem near toppling the system, the protests have widened into strikes which have closed outlets and companies, touched the important vitality sector and impressed brazen acts of dissent towards Iran’s non secular rule.

On Saturday protesters throughout Iran chanted within the streets and in universities towards the nation’s clerical leaders.

A video posted by the Norway-based organisation Iran Human Rights purported to point out protests within the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad, Iran’s second-most populous metropolis, with demonstrators chanting “Clerics get lost” and drivers honking their horns.

Videos posted by the group confirmed a strike by shopkeepers within the northwestern Kurdish metropolis of Saqez – Amini’s residence city. Another video on social media confirmed feminine highschool college students chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom” on the streets of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the movies. Phone and web providers in Iran have been often disrupted over the past month and web watchdog NetBlocks reported “a new major disruption” shortly earlier than Saturday’s protests started.

The Iranian activist information company HRANA mentioned in a posting on-line that 240 protesters had been killed within the unrest, together with 32 minors. It mentioned 26 members of the safety forces had been killed and practically 8,000 individuals had been arrested in protests in 111 cities and cities and a few 73 universities.

Among the casualties have been teenage women whose deaths have turn out to be a rallying cry for extra demonstrations demanding the downfall of the Islamic Republic.

Protesters known as on Saturday for demonstrations within the northwestern metropolis of Ardabil over the dying of Asra Panahi, a youngster from the Azeri ethnic minority who activists alleged was crushed to dying by safety forces.

Officials denied the report and information companies near the Revolutionary Guards quoted her uncle as saying the highschool scholar had died of a coronary heart drawback.

Reporting by Dubai bureau, further reporting by Lucia Mutikani, Mike Stone and Jeff Mason in Washington,
Writing by Dominic Evans
Editing by Helen Popper, William Maclean, Paul Simao and Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

PARIS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – A French felony court docket opened the historic manslaughter trial of Air France (AIRF.PA) and planemaker Airbus (AIR.PA) on Monday, with angry kin demanding justice greater than 13 years after an A330 jetliner ploughed into the Atlantic, killing everybody on board.

The heads of each corporations pleaded not responsible to “involuntary manslaughter” after officers learn out names of the 228 individuals who died when flight AF447 plunged into the darkness throughout an equatorial storm en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.

Several kin shouted protests together with “shame” and “too little, too late” as Air France Chief Executive Anne Rigail after which Airbus SE CEO Guillaume Faury expressed condolences throughout opening statements in the nine-week trial.

“Thirteen years we have been waiting for this day and we have prepared for a long time,” Daniele Lamy, who misplaced her son in the accident, informed Reuters earlier than the listening to.

After a two-year seek for the A330’s black bins utilizing distant submarines, investigators discovered pilots had responded clumsily to an issue involving iced-up pace sensors and lurched right into a freefall with out responding to “stall” alerts.

But France’s BEA accident company additionally revealed earlier discussions between Air France and Airbus about rising issues with exterior “pitot probes” that generate the pace readings.

Summarising prosecution findings, a Paris decide stated Airbus was suspected of reacting too slowly to the rising variety of pace incidents with the introduction of an up to date probe.

Preliminary findings had in the meantime known as into query the efforts taken by the airline to make sure pilots had been nicely educated.

The relative roles of pilot or sensor error shall be key to the trial, exposing bitter divisions which have raged behind the scenes between two of France’s iconic corporations for over a decade.

Airbus blames pilot error for the crash whereas the French provider claims complicated alarms and information overwhelmed the pilots.

Lawyers warned in opposition to permitting the long-awaited trial – which goes forward after a call to desert the case was overturned – to sideline kin of the 33 nationalities represented on AF447, primarily French, Brazilians and Germans.

“It’s a trial where the victims must remain at the centre of debate. We don’t want Airbus or Air France to turn this trial into a conference of engineers,” stated lawyer Sebastien Busy.

It is the primary time French corporations have gone on trial for “involuntary manslaughter” following an air crash. Victims’ families say particular person managers also needs to be in the dock.

Relatives additionally dismissed the utmost tremendous of 225,000 euros ($220,612) every firm might obtain – equal to simply two minutes of pre-COVID-19 income for Airbus or 5 minutes of passenger income for the airline. Undisclosed bigger sums have additionally been made in compensation or out-of-court settlements.

“It’s not the 225,000 euros that will worry them. It’s their reputations… that’s what’s at stake for (Air France and Airbus),” stated families lawyer Alain Jakubowicz.

“For us it is about something else, the truth… and ensuring lessons are learned from all these great catastrophes. This trial is about restoring a human dimension,” he informed reporters.

TRAINING AND SYSTEMS IN SPOTLIGHT

AF447 sparked a rethink about coaching and know-how and is seen as one in all a handful of accidents that modified aviation, together with industry-wide enhancements in recovering misplaced management.

Centre-stage is the thriller of why the crew of three, with greater than 20,000 hours of flying expertise between them, failed to grasp that their trendy jet had misplaced carry or “stalled”.

That required the fundamental manoeuvre of pushing the nostril down as a substitute of yanking it up as they did for a lot of the deadly four-minute plunge in the direction of the Atlantic in a radar dead-zone.

France’s BEA has stated the crew responded incorrectly to the icing drawback, but additionally didn’t have coaching wanted to fly manually at excessive altitude after the autopilot dropped out.

It additionally highlighted inconsistent indicators from a show known as the flight director, which has since been redesigned to change itself off in such occasions to keep away from confusion.

“It will be a difficult trial and we are here to offer compassion… but also our contribution to truth and understanding,” Airbus CEO Faury informed reporters after the opening listening to.

Rigail expressed “the deepest compassion” after telling the court docket Air France would always remember its worst-ever accident.

Grieving the the lack of his daughter on AF447, retired German government Bernd Gans likened the crash – with its concentrate on people versus machines – to a current security disaster over Boeing Co’s 737 MAX.

“They changed the world and the view of public towards these big companies and (regulatory) agencies, which have a great power but should use it,” he stated.

“They can’t restore trust with such declarations.”

Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Kirsten Donovan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NA KLANG, Thailand, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A former policeman killed 34 folks, together with 23 children, throughout a knife and gun rampage at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand on Thursday, police stated, earlier than later taking pictures useless his spouse and little one at house and turning his weapon on himself.

In one of many world’s worst little one demise tolls in a bloodbath by a single killer in latest historical past, a lot of the children who died on the daycare centre in Uthai Sawan, a city 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok, have been stabbed to demise, police stated.

The age vary of children on the daycare centre was from two to 5 years, an area official advised Reuters.

Police recognized the attacker as a former member of the drive who was dismissed from his publish final 12 months over drug allegations and he was going through trial on a medication cost.

The man had been in court docket earlier in the day and had then gone to the daycare centre to gather his little one, police spokesperson Paisal Luesomboon advised broadcaster ThaiPBS.

When he didn’t discover his little one there, he started the killing spree, Paisal stated. “He started shooting, slashing, killing children at the Uthai Sawan daycare centre,” Paisal stated.

“It’s a scene that nobody wants to see. From the first step when I went in, it felt harrowing,” Piyalak Kingkaew, an skilled emergency employee heading the primary responder staff, advised Reuters.

“We’ve been through it before, but this incident is most harrowing because they are little kids.”

A big van that police stated contained our bodies of twenty-two folks, largely children, was seen by Reuters departing from a police station headed in direction of the town of Udon Thani, 80 km (50 miles) away, the place autopsies could be carried out.

‘I BEGGED HIM FOR MERCY’

A Reuters photographer additionally noticed late on Thursday the physique of the shooter, Panya Khamrapm, being moved in a bodybag from a van to a police station in the province.

Photographs taken on the daycare centre by the rescue staff and shared with Reuters confirmed the tiny our bodies of these killed laid out on blankets. Abandoned juice packing containers have been scattered throughout the ground.

“He was heading towards me and I begged him for mercy, I didn’t know what to do,” one distraught lady advised ThaiPBS, preventing again tears.

“He didn’t say anything, he shot at the door while the kids were sleeping,” one other lady stated, changing into distraught.

Police stated the attacker’s weapon was a 9 mm pistol and it had been obtained legally.

Thailand’s police chief stated the perpetrator had tried to interrupt into the premises and had largely used a knife in the killings.

“Then he got out and started killing anyone he met along the way with a gun or the knife until he got home. We surrounded his house and then found that he committed suicide in his home,” Damrongsak Kittiprapas advised reporters.

He stated a couple of children had survived, with out giving particulars.

About 30 children have been on the facility – a pink, one-storey constructing surrounded by a garden and small palm timber – when the attacker arrived, fewer than normal, as heavy rain had saved many individuals away, stated district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a close-by workplace on the time.

“The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first,” Jidapa advised Reuters.

The attacker compelled his approach right into a locked room the place the children have been sleeping, Jidapa stated. A trainer who was eight months pregnant was additionally amongst these stabbed to demise, she stated.

The bloodbath is among the many worst involving children killed by one individual. Anders Breivik killed 69 folks, largely youngsters, at a summer time camp in Norway in 2011, whereas the demise toll in different circumstances embody 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut in 2012, 16 at Dunblane in Scotland in 1996 and 19 at a college in Uvalde, Texas, this 12 months.

The Beslan faculty hostage disaster in Russia in 2004 noticed 186 children killed by a gaggle of hostage takers.

DRUGS CHARGE

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha was anticipated to go to the area on Friday. In a press release on Facebook, he referred to as Thursday’s rampage a “shocking incident”.

Prayuth ordered all authorities departments to fly the nationwide flag at half mast on Friday to mark a tragedy that “had caused grief to the entire nation”, his spokesperson Anusha Burapchaisri stated.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida will go to households of the victims in Udon Thani on Friday, based on an area announcement.

The authorities stated it will present monetary support to the households to assist cowl funeral bills and medical therapy.

The White House and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres each expressed shock on the assault and despatched condolences to the victims’ households.

Gun legal guidelines are strict in Thailand, the place possession of an unlawful firearm carries a jail sentence of as much as 10 years. But possession is excessive in contrast with another international locations in Southeast Asia. Illegal weapons, many introduced in from strife-torn neighbouring international locations, are widespread.

(*24*)Mass shootings in Thailand stay uncommon, though in 2020, a soldier indignant over a property deal gone bitter killed no less than 29 folks and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned 4 places.

Additional reporting by Poppy McPherson and Jiraporn Kuhakan in Na Klang, Orathai Sriring, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng and Juarwee Kittisilpa in Bangkok; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor, Robert Birsel and Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Kim Coghill, Clarence Fernandez, Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.